Seek & Destroy
by GreaterGoodIreland
Summary: An Inquisitor travels to find forces for a crusade of vengeance, only to find a system under siege. Shall Berdam fall to the xenos invader? Is all what it seems?
1. Chapter 1: A Refreshing Beverage

"We really can't thank you enough," said Major Kasky, raising a glass with one hand, "A chance to see our homeworlds again isn't often in the Guard. Say no more about getting us there in such style. Hope you don't mind that we ordered for you."

"Yes Inquisitor, the morale of the troops has greatly improved since we received the news on Coronus," Commissar Steiner added, "Considering what happened on the last deployment, it's bordering on a miracle."

Inquisitor Ferenz Talan smiled, taking his seat at the table. He had them now. His own work would progress much more smoothly with the regimental officers back on side. Major Tahm Kasky, second-in-command of the 16th Berdam Armoured Regiment of the Astra Militarum, and Commissar Steiner of the Commissariat's Far-Eastern division. Tolerable company, Talan thought, but not exactly who he had wanted to spend time with. The ship had limited means of entertainment, and this was far better than nothing.

"After the good work and sacrifices you made on Falasten, I felt indebted to you and the regiment," Talan said, raising his glass, "And I apologise for not holding this little social gathering sooner."

"I've been enjoying the lounge for weeks myself," the Major said, drinking deeply before waving his glass around, "Where have you been? You've been missed."

"I've been reading as much as I can about your home, actually," Talan said, "It's an interesting place."

"Well, you'll get to see much of it if you stick with us," the Commissar said sternly, "We'll be off the ship in a few days, back in tanks, and to proper drills and patrols."

"I would ask about what sort of things you read about, but this is a merry occasion!" the Major continued, "Can't wait to get home. Even our Eccleisarchy services are more interesting than what passes for R&amp;R on most of the Fringe!"  
"Your services involve revelry instead of hymns and drinks instead of incense," said Talan flatly, his eyes narrowed, "Your opinion is hardly surprising."

"We all worship the Emperor," Steiner intoned through his mug, "In our own way."

The ship deck shuddered slightly, and the drinks sloshed inside the glasses on the tables to the consternation of all the customers of the lounge. The tinkling of glass on glass sounded throughout the bar like a choir, filling the air. "Bloody warp currents," Kasky complained loudly over the noise, rescuing his drink before the next round of shake, "They're never right around home, was the exact same when we left."

Talan observed the figures around the tarot table once again, as the ship's unease continued. Major Kasky was unbuttoning his formal uniform while maintaining his balance remarkably well, Talan thought, though as the air assault commander, he was probably used to this sort of thing.

The Commissar was faring less well, looking like he was about to get sick. He had opted to keep his hat on, probably to insure the regimental NCOs at the far end of the room could see that he was present. That was a mistake, as the hat now protruded from the man's head at an undignified angle as if he was far more drunk than he actually was. By contrast, Kasky's round white kepi was on the table, moving with the vibration.

Finally, a pause in the shaking arrived, and an audible sigh of relief echoed around the chamber. Every person present understood the dangers of the warp well enough, evidently.  
"So, I presume the Colonel will not be joining us?" said Talan, picking up the scattered deck of tarot cards to shuffle them.

Kasky grinned, revealing a facial lasburn scar. "No, she is meeting with the ship's captain," he said, "Unfortunately for you." The Inquisitor noticed the Major liked to use this face to put people off balance, but he was having none of it.

The Commissar raised an eyebrow. He had only joined the regiment on Coronus after the two campaigns they had fought under Inquisitorial authority as the regiment had taken heavy casualties, so he was unaware of _many_ things. Talan wanted to cultivate the right image with the man, and Kasky knew it.

"Colonel Mieza has many duties to attend to, I'm sure," Talan replied quickly, not wanting to flaunt his authority to end the subject.

"She is observing the transition from the warp, but I'm sure Artemis will have time to chat before we land on Piraeus," said Kasky, leaning back, "We'll still have a day at least to drift into the system from the halo once we drop out of the warp. We'll be in realspace any time now."

"Good, she is essential to my mission to gather forces in your home system for the crusade against the xenos scum that beat us," said Talan, dealing a hand, "And when we're there, try to remember I'm with Segmentum Command, not the Inquisition. There's hardly any point in wearing this uniform if you go about calling me Inquisitor the whole time."

"Essential he says," Kasky said, rolling his eyes to the Commissar, whom to Talan's thanks remained silent, "As you wish, Inquisitor."

The lurch of the ship exiting the warp swept the room, and alarms sounded for a few minutes as was standard.

"At last, we've arrived," Steiner thought aloud, recovering from his space-sickness, "We're clear of danger."

"ALL HANDS, PREPARE TO REPEL BOARDERS."

The announcement droned through an intercom at near-deafening volume, stunning the occupants of the room.

"Well, that's unusual," Kasky said, as people moved from a somewhat relaxed state to one of near anarchy, as Guardsmen rushed to pick up their weapons and organise themselves, while civilians just flailed about in panic making the former's attempts almost impossible.

Talan turned to Commissar Steiner, as booming metallic sounds, obviously the impacts of boarding assault pods, started from the direction of the doorway. "I thought a man of your profession would have understood not to tempt fate," he said, before picking up the lasgun off the back of his chair. The Commissar didn't look happy about being wrong in the slightest.

Normally, Talan would carry something with more firepower, but as he was posing as a strategist not an Inquisitor of the Ordo Xenos, he had opted for a Guard uniform and weapon. So, a lascarbine of the type carried by tank crews, flak armour and a Colonel's four bars on his lapel. The only reason he had a flak-jacket at all was due to regulations in Berdamian regiments demanding officers be ready to fight at all times. He felt almost naked.

The civilians in the room were still mobbing around unsure of what to do, so Talan set the commissar to calming them while Kasky got his Guardsmen in order. As the Major strode off kepi-on-head and buttoning up his shirt again, Talan fumbled for his commbead to contact his acolytes.

A young deck hand broke through the doors into the lounge, his overalls covered in blood. Looking around the room, he spotted Major Kasky and ran to him, grabbing at the man's uniform, soiling it with red ichor.

The entire room was transfixed on the poor soul, which increased Talan's unease. Panic had been replaced with morale-destroying distraction.

"They're purple!" he declared, pulling at Kasky's sleaves, "They're purple!"  
As the Berdamian troops pulled the man off their commanding officer, Talan's mind raced. Had the Tyranids attacked Berdam, and now their transport? The man moved to the middle of the room, and only now tried to remove his blood-slick uniform. All eyes followed.

"It's alright son, tell me what happened," said Steiner in as delicate a tone as he could muster, adjusting his hat and approaching the man, "Where are the enemy?"

The rating finally stopped trying to get attention, turned white and collapsed.  
Immediately afterwards, a high shriek pierced the air, and the attentions of soldiers and civilians alike turned back to the doorway. An Administratum adept had been stabbed through the back and out the front of her belly by a crude, broad knife. It soon withdrew, and then sliced across her throat, ending the noise.

The corpse slumped to the ground, revealing the killer. A huge Ork, easily half again the height of the tallest soldier present and about as wide, stood growling in triumph. The monstrous xeno was covered in crude runes of purple.

"Oh frakking warp, that's much worse!" Talan thought aloud, and began shoving a powerpack into his weapon as fast as he could.

"What are you frakwits waiting for, FIRE!" Kasky ordered, flicking the selector on his lascarbine to automatic and hosing down the Ork as it moved to cover. More of the foul aliens seemed to shimmer into existence along the wall beside the dooras if they had been there the whole time, and grabbed the nearest humans. Talan targeted the biggest one with little success, and the thing actually had the sense to return fire with a crude bolter from the end of the bar. He flipped the table over, causing the glasses to smash on the floor and tarot cards to scatter everywhere as a bolt burst through the venerable wood and exploded. His heart pounded while he reloaded his weapon, as he awaited the follow-up shot.

"What are they doing?" the Commissar shouted over the din of battle, and Talan looked through the hole in the table. The Orks were retreating, some even taking civilians or soldiers hostage as they did so.

"Target the hostages then the Orks carrying them," Talan said, an order that Steiner and Kasky repeated, though it earned him some ugly looks. Several of the civilians in the arms of the Orks were struck, but most seemed to be alive as the aliens tossed them aside. Talan frowned, the soldiers had obviously not wished to target their own, but it had been a futile hesitation ; the Orks slit the throats of the surviving hostages as they clambered out of the room. The firefight died down to nothing.

"Stand to! Get the civilians and injured to the back!" Kasky ordered, grabbing a confessor and pushing him in the appropriate direction, as the troops moved to cover the door and shore up barriers.

The Commissar took a place beside the Inquisitor, retrieving his chainsword from the floor in the open as he did so.

"Something is wrong," Steiner said, "Orks retreating? They'll be back."  
Kasky glanced at the Inquisitor, a signal that he agreed.

Talan looked between the two briefly, then strode towards the door snapping a long bayonet onto his weapon as he did so. He hurried as he stepped over a few Orkish corpses. They smelt like a hive city cloaca mixed with the wet ferrous scent of blood, which would have caused Talan to choke in the past. He was well used orks by this stage however, and marched on in full concentration.

"What in the name of the Throne is he doing?" Steiner asked.  
"Buying some time," replied Kasky.

Glutteral and alien chuckling got more and more audible as Talan approached his goal, and he soon discovered why; a brace of crude grenades attached to sticks soon banged off the half-open door, bouncing to his feet.

Trained instinct immediately took over Talan's body, and he jumped to the side. The grenades exploded as he rolled into cover behind another thick wooden table. The wood was far from adequate protection, and scrapnel burst through the furniture, ripping bloody rends in his right side from shoulder to ankle. Howling with pain, he scrambled up and towards the Guardsmen. Thankfully, they hadn't been idle.

The Orks burst yet again into the room with a roar, abandoning stealth. Kasky had set up a killzone, and the aliens fell right into it. The _boyz_ were being cut to shreds by the volleys of lasfire, though that didn't seem to stop some of them. Talan added his own shots against the green wave as it made it half-way across the room. The first barriers were breached as Orks kicked them down. Talan was almost decapitated by a _choppa_ swing, dodging it by simply dropping backwards onto his rear and firing. The next alien simply smashed his dead counterpart aside, but Talan scrambled away in time.

The weight of fire was beginning to tell, and the second barricade held. Most of the Orks were on the ground, though not all were dead. Many required a quick burst of shots to prevent them from clawing their way forwards or continuing to fire what they considered to be firearms. Kasky ordered a charge, and it was the turn of the Emperor's adopted sons and daughters to roar in triumph. They rushed forward, bayonets flicking and barrels strobing. What few Orks were left standing died quickly.

Talan emptied his lascarbine into the nearest breathing xeno, released the depleted magazine, and slumped into a chair. He regretted it, as a spike of pain rushed through him. He looked down to see a large piece of metal, from what he could only assume was the casing of one of the grenades, jutting from the flesh on his hip. He ripped it out immediately. With a shout of agony, he grabbed an unbroken bottle of amasec from the ground and poured it over the wound before wrapping it.

When he finally looked up, the Commissar and Major were busy attending to their men, while a medicae looked to the civilian wounded as best as she could. A group of the NCOs had moved to the doorway, and started peering out into the corridor, apparently on guard but clearly displeased about it. The sounds of fighting from other places in the ship could be heard only very vaguely. Guard on the door, low likelihood of interruption. Good, thought Talan, time to investigate.

The Inquisitor got up with a groan and strolled over to the nearest pile of purple-painted foul-smelling green xenos, taking a swig from the amasec as he did so, earning some disbelieving looks from the civilians. A quick glare and they soon turned to mind their own business. Ignorance is bliss, Talan thought to himself as he approached one of the original attacker's corpse.

The first thing he noted was the armour. It was most definitely not a material of Orkish construction, nor did it look to be looted from an Imperial armoury. It was black, far thinner than a flak armour yet just as effective if not more so, and didn't look to be a plasteel polymer weave like carapace armour. It was also extremely light. Only the Tau or Eldar could have made such a thing, yet it had no recognisable markings. Talan frowned, wondering how in the warp an Ork got it into its head to loot lightweight armour for stealth purposes.

The purple paint was daubed in Orkish runes on the armour and flesh of the thing. Talan knew that some Ork _klans_ used such tactics, but it was something else entirely to be standing before a pile of them. The Eastern Fringe just wasn't where such groups were usually found.

"What are these things?" asked Kasky quietly, startling Talan as he approached from the side, "I have never heard of Orks acting like this."

"I have heard of it, but never witnessed it myself," replied the Inquisitor, "But then, Orks rarely require the attentions of my Ordo directly." He motioned towards the group of dead ones by the door.

"Look at this, the kommandos who got into the room unnoticed are painted purple and are wearing that armour, but the group over there that came in after the grenades seem to be ordinary specimens of their species, with no guile about them and no real armour."

"So?" Kasky asked, as he kicked the nearest corpse with a wrinkled nose. The smell was getting to him.

"If the system is under attack, which we must assume, it's not going to be free passes and leave for all when we make planetfall," Talan said, "Hard fighting is ahead, harder than usual, even against Orks."

"That'll do a world of good for the troops," Steiner cut in, walking over. Talan rubbed his temples, not sure if the man was being sarcastic and still in pain himself.

"Perhaps, but I can't very well requisition troops from a system under an Ork assault, can I?" he said, rubbing his side as it continued to throb, "Luckily, these Orks seem to be worthy of study, and I can do certain things and call in favours to speed the campaign along. Hopefully."

"You're really set on avenging our boys and girls..." Kasky remarked, placing a hand on Talan's shoulder as he did so, "For what happened on Falasten?"

"I don't like to lose," Talan said, plastering his number one evil grin on his face, "In the mean time, we best get the wounded to the medicae bay and the rest to the cargo bay."

"Why the cargo bay? Why not to the bridge to link up with the Colonel?" asked Steiner, reloading his laspistol as he did so.

Talan held up his lascarbine in front of his chest in response. "The ship provides plenty of cover, and this isn't nearly lethal enough to confidently stop an Ork at less than ten yards before it tears my head off. We need hellguns, autoshotguns, plasma weapons and/or meltas. There are numbers of those in the secondary cargo bay, and my acolytes will have already mobilised there."

Talan's commbead buzzed, indicating an active vox line.  
"Finally," he muttered, as he tried to finesse the frequency.

"Kasky, do you read me?" Colonel Mieza asked. Talan breathed a quiet sigh of relief. She was safe. Without vox contact, he had feared she had been caught in the corridors.

"I'm with the Commissar and Talan, we can barely hear you," the Major replied, as the Commissar input his own codes to enter the channel, "What's the situation?"

"Apart from the Orks? We seem to be late," she said, "We're nearly a year later than we should be, something to do with the warp."  
"How bad is it?" asked Steiner.

"The Orks only arrived themselves a few days ago, so the defence is still being organised," Mieza replied, the vox distortions muddling her voice, "They set up in the halo and have been attacking anything that drops out of the warp, so the ship is swarming with the xenos."

"Alright, we're heading to the cargo bay to get heavier weapons, can you hold?" asked Talan.

"...We can," she said, "Mieza out."

Talan chewed his lip for a moment, then strode towards the exit. He stopped at the door guards, turned to the officers behind him.

"We need to kill the Orks before we get near port, or they'll kill us all and use the ship to land," he said to them, "To the medicae bay first."

Flicking on his luminator, Talan walked into the red-lit corridor, and behind him, the troops and civilians followed.


	2. Chapter 2: Obstacles

Progress from the self-proclaimed "Officer's Lounge" to the medicae bay was slow. The corridors were punctuated by emergency bulkhead doors designed to close shut, and on this particular ship, they only allowed one or two to pass through at a time. To complicate matters, the direct route to the destination was blocked by a sealed door, a result of what Talan presumed was the impact of the boarding pod that delivered the Orks they had killed into the ship. The back route was even more narrow.

Nerves were fraying as well. Talan stood at an intersection, watching the civilians pass him by and waiting for the rear guard to come. As they passed, he could smell the fear on them. It was something he knew quite well. They had watched soldiers and non-combatants alike get hacked to pieces or blown up from the inside, and thought the worst. Talan grimaced, knowing that this was far from the worst, unable to regard their fear with anything but contempt. However, their fear could turn into panic, and that might get them all killed, so he would have to do something about it.

Finally, the last of the civilians filed by, and the rearguard approached in good order, lead by Steiner. He saluted as he approached, and Talan took him aside.

"The Litany of Vengeance," Talan said quietly.

"I know it..." Steiner stated, confused.  
"Start chanting it."

The Commissar looked at Talan like he was mad. However, mindful of just who was asking, the officer began to chant the holy words. To Talan's surprise, instead of the standard low gothic rendition, he said the words in the dialect of Berdam. The troops moving with them seemed startled at first, but soon joined in. Even some of the civilians did so, lead most convincingly by the confessor.

Talan was satisfied. There would be no stampede to escape now that would risk everyone's lives. The whole column began the second verse. Tucking his gun behind his back, he strode towards the front of the group again, happy with his handiwork. The pace picked up as well, to the relief of the wounded.

Soon, the Inquisitor fell in beside Major Kasky, who was still sporting his kepi.  
"Was the chanting your idea?" he asked.

"It was," Talan confirmed, pulling himself through a doorway.

"Clever."  
"Clever is my job."

The Major burst out laughing at that.

"I suppose it is," he said finally, "We can't have idiots running the... Logis Strategos."  
Talan nodded back at him, grateful for the lack of mention of the word "inquisitor" with so many civilians in earshot.

Kasky continued directing his troops and the civilians with caution, so with little more to do, Talan kept going to join the troops at the front of the column. They weren't far ahead, and were struggling with a stuck door.

"Hello Ferenz!" said a voice cheerily to his left as he moved to help the Guardsmen pulling at the thing. After the damned thing swung open with plenty of metallic groaning, he turned to see who it was.

"Gunner... Greta," said Talan, as the tank gunner and friend of Colonel Mieza gave him a parody of a salute, "It occurs to me I don't know your second name."

"Ah, never mind, you wouldn't be able to pronounce it," she said, smiling as she stepped forward, lascarbine at the ready as she followed the two others who had forced the door.  
"Well, as you know mine and can certainly pronounce it, I'd appreciate if you called me by it," he replied pointedly.

"But we know each other so well!" she grinned. Talan sighed, utterly exasperated, particularly because what she said was true. His rank and reputation terrified almost all of the enlisted troops, and they would barely mumble a word to him unless asked. Greta on the other hand, was perfectly content to poke fun at him to an extent that even a drunken Major Kasky would find insulting. Luckily for her, she was the best shot with a battle cannon or lascannon in the regiment as well as a companion to the Colonel, so Talan reckoned that just shooting her would be a bit self-defeating.

His retort to her cheek was cut short by the signal to halt.

"Something's rattling around in here," Greta said, stating the obvious. There was definitely movement and impact noises coming from somewhere nearby.

The guardswoman put her ear against a pipe that ran along the corridor, and hmmed to herself.  
"Seems to be in here?" she mused, knocking on it with her knuckles. Talan copied her, and the amount of noise seemed to increase.

A grate further down the passage burst from its sealings, and the three troopers covered it in an instant, waiting to see. Talan did the same after a moment of yet more bangs and clinks.

Two servo-skulls emerged from the pipe, one carrying a pictcaster and the other a boltpistol which poked awkwardly out of its mouth. The Inquisitor recognised them immediately.

"Mireya, can you hear me?" he said, lowering his weapon and slapping down Greta's own.

The two skulls floated towards him, and with a humming, a voice came through the one with the pictcaster.

"Yes, Ferenz," came a female voice, "I sent these ones after you when we couldn't get into vox contact."

Kasky approached at this point, walking at pace.  
"What's this?" he asked.  
"My acolytes have found us," Talan said, which garnered a "they look worse for wear" comment from Greta.

"Good, where are they?" said Kasky, after giving Greta an appropriately officer-like glare to restore discipline.  
"We're in the medicae bay," Mireya said through her hovering pets, "The Orks are around us, but the bulkheads are holding and there are plenty of weapons. Aelian and Roxana are helping with the defence, and I've been trying to sooth the machine spirits so they aren't intimidated into opening the doors."

"And I suppose the Orks are right in front of us?" Talan asked.  
"Most of them that I know about," came the reply.  
"Of course they are," he said, squeezing his temples, "Alright, on the attack."

"The way I like it," said Greta, to Kasky's approval.

"Bring up everyone who can fight except five," the Major ordered, and the nearest gunner ran to carry out the order.

Within a couple of minutes, the NCOs were assembling, ready to advance. The confessor entered the room as well behind them.

"What are you doing?" asked Talan, as the cleric pulled out a chainsword.

"Redeeming myself," said the man, "I shrunk from battle before, but hearing the holy words earlier has awoken me, so I must fight."

Talan smiled. This man understood.  
"Very well," he said, and waved the confessor forward, who began a benediction over the troops as they lined up.

When no more came through, Kasky shut the door. He began to explain the situation.

Talan tapped Greta on the shoulder, causing her to jump, and pointed to the next door, still being covered by the two she had been with on point.

"With me," he said, "We're going ahead."

She nodded, and they left, closing the door behind them.

Without having to wait for civilians or any real number of people to catch up, Talan moved swiftly towards the enemy. Greta proved to be as competent on foot as she was inside a tank, covering corridors and portals with brisk efficiency, and keeping her comments to a minimum. As the most expendable person he came closest to trusting, she was the natural choice, but Talan was pleasantly surprised at this development.

They ran into corpses both human and alien, bulkheads riddled with damage from bolts and explosives, and a great deal of blood. Talan examined each Ork body, looking for more of the strange armour or purple runes indicating that it was a kommando, but none could be found.

They soon found the main body of the Orks, and there were at least thirty of the damn things banging on the blast doors of the medicae bay. To make matters worse, a big mek was shouting at gretchen while battering what must have been the release controls. Talan hoped Mireya was still soothing the machines.

"What now?" Greta whispered, glancing around the edge of the corner at the mob.

"We draw them to a more vulnerable position," Talan replied, "So the Major and the Commissar can hit them hard, and so they don't get through that door."

The gunner looked up at Talan as if he had just forced her to eat something disgusting.

"Sorry, but someone has to do it," he said, levelling his lascarbine, "Fire at that gomb fiddling with the wires, then we'll go left down this connecting corridor."  
Greta grumbled, but followed his lead.

Talan fired a burst at the big mek, and it turned to see who was shooting at it. Greta then opened up on full automatic, pitting the Ork with hits. It bellowed with a mixture of pain and rage, ordering the others to attack with a shout of "_humiez_!". Talan fired a single shot, which blew through the damn thing's neck. It collapsed as he knew it would. Greta changed targets to the mob now charging after them.

"Run!" shouted Talan, as his escort's gun ran dry. She was well ahead of him, and made it through the doorway to the next corridor first. He reloaded, and turned, spraying the first ork down, slowing the whole pack as they bottlenecked. They shouted insults in return, opting to not shoot for some reason or another. Greta set up to copy Talan's lead, and fired as he ran past, downing another Ork.

The pair ran as hard as they could, jumping through portals, and thanks to the bulk of the enemy, were able to move much faster than the orks. As soon as they had opened a good few minutes lead, Talan stopped at the narrowest intersection he could find. The bellowing of the enemy was growing louder, but they would soon be silenced. They had fallen into the trap.

"Any time now, Major," Talan voxed, as Greta shot the first ork to present itself.  
"Tell that frakhead we only have so much ammo!" she said, reloading.

The Major let the troops answer, as they caught the rampaging Orks in the flank and rear. The ambush had worked. Talan motioned to Greta to go back the way they came, and she did so with good grace now that they weren't in the fight alone. The two swept into the next room firing, downing an ork a piece, before teaming up on a third.

"Emperor be praised! Kill the Alien!" came a roar, and the confessor charged into view from an adjoining intersection, and threw himself on the enemy. Talan and Greta rushed towards him, but were intercepted by another pair of drooling orks. Fighting their way towards the man, Talan could see that the civilian was no skilled hand with a blade, but made up for it with righteous rage. He hacked the limbs off the Orks that came at him, incapacitating them before they could hit him or distract him long enough to be hit in the back.

Unfortunately, an Ork on the floor soon grabbed the man's robes, and pulled him down. The rest of the standing aliens then proceeded to kick and cut the man to death.

Talan swung his weapon to stop them, counting on Greta to cover his back. He unloaded his lascarbine across the Orks's backs, not stopping until his powerpack was empty, depositing nearly a hundred shots. They collapsed in a bloody heap around the confessor.

"Ferenz!" shouted Greta. Talan turned, and another Ork charged at him, purple flashing at him. It had been hiding in the corner, waiting. He brought his weapon up, bayonet first. The Ork swung its own knife, trying to knock the attack away. It succeeded, but fell backwards. Greta then seized the chance, running to it as it struggled to regain its feet. She dispatched it with grim resolve in her face.

"Thank you," Talan said quickly, before moving to the pile of Ork corpses to drag them off the confessor. He was still alive, though wouldn't be for much longer.

"You did well, old man," Talan said, grabbing the man's hand, "The Emperor will be pleased."  
The man just nodded, then expired. Seeing to the body, Talan said a small prayer over it, asking for the Throne's blessing. The confessor deserved no less.

Commissar Steiner and two troopers clambered into the chamber, weapons at the ready. Greta immediately stood at attention, and saluted.

"At ease, Gunner," said Steiner, looking around the corpse pit of a room, "The area is secure, Talan."

Talan stood up properly from the confessor's body, and nodded.

"Thank you, commissar," he said.

"You continue to impress," Steiner said.

"This is nothing," said Talan, slapping the commissar on the shoulder, "But thank you nonetheless. See that this man's body is properly attended to, he fought with great zeal."

The Commissar nodded, and indicated to his troopers.

The walk back to the medicae bay was a short one. Greta tagged along, joking about guarding him for Colonel Mieza. Talan obliged her, but didn't really want a reminder about that subject.

Talan and Greta paced past the corpses and guards, and arrived at the medicae bay as the civilians were filing past the now open blast doors. They looked positively relieved to be in a safe area, and Talan shared the feeling. Now the civilians were out from under him, he could get to the job of slaughtering the aliens efficiently and figuring out what in the warp was going on in Berdam.

The small crowd parted, making way for Magos Modena. Greta gasped, and Talan understood why. Mireya's bright red robes showed her for what she was, a techpriest of the Mechanicus, and the gold braid sewn in cogwheel patterns insured that all knew she held rank. She did not appear heavily augmented save for one very noticeable thing: Four mechadentrites sprouted from her back, two from her lower back, and two closer to her shoulder blades. This combined with the huge autoshotgun she carried on her hip was more than enough to turn heads and part the crowd.

"Any trouble?" Mireya asked, embracing Talan for a moment before holding him out at arms length.  
"Nothing worthy of note," Talan replied, "Though the Orks are wearing some unusual armour." Mireya nodded, and took down her hood to reveal deep red hair and some cranial augmentation as she played with a data-slate. She hummed a cog-hymn as she did so.

Talan turned to dismiss Greta, and found her enraptured by his acolyte.

"Sergeant-Gunner Greta, this is Mireya Modena, Magos Militarum of the Arachnae Sect," he said, "And a member of my staff. She is already aware of who you are."

The techpriest looked up, and then back to her work, but extended a mechadentrite towards Greta. Greta shook it like a hand, causing Mireya to look up again and chuckle.

"It's a pleasure to meet you," Greta said finally, before saluting and walking away.

"A brave one, that," she said, "Is she a candidate?"  
"No," said Talan firmly.  
"Perhaps she should be," Mireya mused, "Anyway, here is the situation on the ship as best I gather."

Another mechadentrite delivered the data-slate, apparently finished collating the data.

"Great, the damn things are in the enginarium," Talan muttered aloud, "I guess the cargo-bay plan is out."

"Only one route to the secondary cargo bay from this position is intact," Mireya stated, in a monotone that made it clear she was accessing information by neural link, "Xenos interdiction is estimated at 100% effective."

Talan sighed. Getting to his meltagun and armour worthy of the title would be impossible if they couldn't get around the Orks. He stratched his head for a moment, thinking on alternative plans, but then Mireya spoke.

"The others are through here, and I have something for you," the techpriest said with a small smile. She took hold of something that had been hanging on her back under her robes.

Talan returned the smile now, and took the weapon from Mireya's hands after putting his now-battered lascarbine down against the wall.

"This will do," Talan said cheerily.

"Omnissiah be praised," smiled Mireya as she made the sign of the cogwheel with her hands.


	3. Chapter 3: Mechanics

"This is beautiful work," Talan said to Mireya, as she started a ritual of emergency access on a blast door identical to the one the Orks had attempted to get past. He held the weapon up to the light.

It was a Tau pulse carbine, but not like any those xenos possessed. Black and in-laid with gold script and images of the Mechanicus cogwheel along its barrel, it had been rendered holy to serve the Golden Throne rather than its blasphemous constructors, its machine-spirit awed into submission to His will. The grenade launcher had been removed, and a lasgun foregrip added. Mireya bristled with pride at the praise, and Talan pat her on the back before turning to the rest of the group. The thing would do very nicely when they reached the enginarium.

"Mine's bigger," joked Roxana, hefting her longshot pulse rifle to rest on her hip. It was similarly decorated, and a flowing purity seal hung near its business end.

"It's not a contest, Madame Bactriana," Talan frowned, "Besides, in this environment, bigger is likely to get you killed."

The acolyte grinned. "Not likely."  
Roxana Bactriana had been with the Inquisitor the longest. Standing as tall as Talan, she was of noble blood and beautiful in the way nobles usually were. She was far from indulging in the aristocratic sense of dress at that moment however, with a hard carapace of armour stretching down from her chest to her ankles, and a targeting auspex in one eye attached to a standard Tempestus helmet which covered her face. The only part of her unarmoured seemed to be a long blonde tressed ponytail poking its way out from under her helmet. Talan envied the protection; he was still in an ill-fitting Guard flakjacket, and had no protection for his head, arms or anything lower than his waist.

"You're not as good as you think you are," Talan said.  
"Yes, I am," Roxana replied, her armoured mask failing to block the tone of her voice, "It's just a fact." Talan sighed. If she learned some modesty, she would be on the fast-track to getting her own Inquisitorial seal and commission, he thought to himself.

"Alright, you are pretty damn good," he said finally, "Just try not to get that thing caught in a doorway or something." She was the best shot he had ever come across, after all, and Talan had met plenty of marksmen in his time.

Mireya began communicating with the door's cogigator in binary, and suffocating incense started rising from the shrine. Talan coughed, now given another reason to envy his acolytes' protective equipment.

"I am not even sure we should be using those unless there is no choice," growled the fourth member of the retinue, referring to the xeno weaponry, "I am not one to invite blasphemy."  
Aelian Cosano snapped the firing selector of his Arbites pattern combat shotgun to safe with an audible click, and set it aside as he sat on yet another of the ubiquitous rusted pipes that ran along every wall in the ship. A former Arbites arbitrator, he still wore the armour of his old profession, inscribed with the Lex Imperialis' foundational tenets. Talan himself had been an Arbites cadet, and they had met long before he held the rank of Inquisitor, though Aelian was the latest addition to his retinue. The grizzled man wasn't exactly a treat to look at, but his skill for investigation was excellent and he was unshakeably loyal.

"Ah, shut up you old hound," Roxana said, "These things have been sanctified." Aelian grumbled to himself in response, muttering about the law and techpriests' blasphemies.

Mireya stopped chanting, and turned to the conversation.  
"If it helps your conscience, there is significant evidence that certain Tau technosorceries are in fact derived from holy STC designs recovered by the xenos in the course of their expansion," she said, matter-of-factly, "Their plasma and melta weaponry in particular shows signs of derivation from Imperial models. My sect has long been interested in the parallels between our own technology and that of the Tau."

Another burst of grumbling erupted from Aelian. Talan decided against getting into it. Blowing off a little steam before combat was probably for the best, he thought.

"See, nothing to worry about," said Roxana, as the door controls chimed compliance, "We'll kill all the Orks and arrive just in time to save Artemis."

Talan grimaced. "I doubt Colonel Mieza is in need of rescue," he said shortly.

"Really? We seem to do most of the heavy lifting," remarked Roxana.

"We're not the Guard," said Aelian, "Our role is different."

The doors opened smoothly but loudly.

"Alright, no shooting unless we're spotted," Talan ordered, glad to be on the way at last, "I'd rather not fight the Orks in the corridors. Again."

Roxana and Aelian acknowledged the order, while Mireya simply pulled out her own shotgun. The Magos' servo-skulls hummed away into the corridors ahead. Aelian took point, and the group moved carefully through the bowels of the ship.

Things were quiet at first. Little sign of the Orks was to be found. Rooms were unlooted, no particular smells except rust were about and there was a distinct lack of corpses. Yet not a soul was to be found. By the time they made it to the hatch they would use to get down to the enginarium level, Talan's stomach was knotted. Reports of Orks operating in such a disciplined manner were such a rarity as to be considered non-existent and worthy of summary execution by ordinary Imperial agents. Very few people would believe his reports if they made it off the ship.

The Inquisitor knew better, of course, and possibilities of tainted greenskins of many kinds entered his mind.

Mireya proceeded down the hole first, climbing down head-first with her mechadentrites, shotgun at her shoulder readied. She then gracefully flipped onto her feet at the bottom of the ladder rungs, and signalled the all-clear.

"I need to get some of those," Aelian remarked, as the techpriest hummed to herself.

"Would interfere with other things, I imagine," Roxana replied, shaking her head in disbelief. Even after a few years, that trick never got old. Talan motioned them to hurry up, and they complied.

Following them down, Talan inspected the space they had entered. This was clearly the realm of the enginseers and Mechanicus crew; the messy functionality of the rest of the ship gave way to well-maintained geometry, and symbols of the power of the Machine-God were present everywhere. The doors were larger as well, evidently to allow the passage of servitors.

Talan followed Mireya's lead in making the cogwheel, hoping to insure the goodwill of the Omnissiah in his realm, and then ordered an advance. They moved with great caution now, as a great clamour echoed through the halls. From the direction they were headed.

"We're near the main chamber," said Mireya after a while, as her servo-skulls returned to the group once again, "The enemy is a deck below us, but we should be able to eliminate them from the balconies above the main Geller Field generators on this side."

"Perfect," said Roxana before Talan could speak, "I'll pick the xenos to pieces from above."  
"We should see what they're up to first," said the Inquisitor, inflecting his voice to insure his suggestion was heard as an order. His acolytes agreed.

The group entered the engine room, sweeping right and left on the balcony to make sure there were no greenskins lurking. There weren't, so they turned towards the main space. It was the size and approximate shape of a small cathedral, with one wall entirely taken up by the warp engine's massive bulk. In front of it, amongst the various diagnostic and control equipment, stood a whole warband of Orks. Orkish banners and icons were plastered on any space with room for them. The bellowing of the xenos was cacophonous, almost drowning out the noise of the engines.

Roxana flicked her hair to her back, lay down at the edge of the balcony and began scanning with her longshot-pulse. Talan approved, she had anticipated his order.

"Do you see any _bosses_?" he asked, as Aelian sat down beside Roxana and Mireya consulted a console.

"I see plenty of big ones," Roxana replied after a minute, "But they're all roughly the same size."

"Must be _nobs_," Talan thought aloud, "There seem to be a lot of _meks_ too."  
"They have the techpriests," she continued, "Big group of them sat down the other end, slaver-types guarding them with gretchin."  
"What in the name of the Throne are they doing with all the banners?" Aelian asked, "We will need to get flamers down here to purge the place of taint."

"The machine-spirits are in great distress," Mireya cut in, "It appears the Orks are attempting to gain control of the warp engines and main thrusters. Fascinating, the Mechanicus has very rarely seen this stage of the process of Ork looting of Imperial vessels before. They seem to be attempting to coerce the engines' machine-spirits into submission with their icons and banners, while using violence where that fails."

"Sounds familiar," said Roxana, patting the side of her own 'alien' equipment.

"The technotheology isn't my concern at this point, if they get control of the engines, what can they do besides crash us into something?" Talan asked.

"Well, on this class of ship, atmospheric processing is powered directly for economic reasons. They could suffocate everyone outside of the bridge, medicae section and in this chamber. These areas are designed to function as emergency redoubts in case of a massive loss of atmosphere or clean air."

"Great, so if they pull it off, our choices will be to suffocate or survive in an enclosed space with a hundred orks," Roxana said, still scanning below for sign of a leader, "They've got an airlock open as well."

"The secondary docking tubes," said Mireya, "For emergency access to the engine survival area."

"I guess that explains how so many are in this one place, they've got a ship or shuttle docked" said Talan, observing two Orks blast each other at close range with bolters while a circle of others cheered and roared insults.

"What do we do?" Aelian asked.

Talan cracked his knuckles as he thought.

"It won't be long before they get control of the place, so we need to stop them now. We're not going to get planetside to fulfill our mission if the aliens crash or loot the ship. We also need to make sure those techpriests don't do the Orks' work for them."

"And, if we don't clear them out soon, they will find and kill us all," added Aelian.

"No choice, we attack," Talan concluded.


	4. Chapter 4: Engineering

Roxana found herself alone on the balcony, staring down her scope at the slobbering, brutish xenos, searching for an opportunity. The things were organised into two warbands, as far as she could tell. The techpriests trussed up in the back were looking distinctly worse for wear, as meks bickered over what looked like augmentations ripped from the flesh of the less fortunate human beings.

The acolyte had faced Orks before, and Talan had left her in the position because she knew exactly what to do. She sighted what she needed to, and brought the aiming reticles to bear on the target.

The nob in question was stood beside another, their backs turned to one another. It appeared they had their hands full keeping their two mobs separate from one another. Bonus, thought Roxana, as she sent the plasma pulse flying.

It flew across the room silently, the report of the rifle itself masked by the engine and greenskin clamour. It burst against the back of the head of the slightly bigger specimen, impacting the xeno's helmet with more than a little force. The foul thing recoiled in pain, and turned to see its attacker. The only thing it saw was its counterpart, bellowing as if nothing had happened.

With a mammoth roar, it struck the other nob with the flat of its powerklaw.

The brawl and firefight began immediately, just as planned. The mobs were amongst one another, battering each other to death with bare fists, crude axes and knives. Bolter duels between the separate groups drew in yet more groups of Orks out of sheer lack of accuracy.

Roxana laughed at her handiwork, and began to pick off some of the contestants, killing one with every burst of shots. Orks took a lot of putting down, she thought as she worked; against many other opponents, she could have cleared the room herself.

"Well done," Talan voxed. The Inquisitor did not have a view of the carnage his acolyte unleashed, but the noise was enough to indicate it was more than satisfactory for their purposes.

"Any time you want to start," Roxana replied over the gunfire, "As much as I'd like to, I can't kill them all." Talan was amused; she was clearly enjoying herself.

"Right. Mireya?"

The techpriest nodded rapidly, and sent the command to her servo-skulls. They buzzed past Talan and Aelian on the stairwell to the next deck, down and then through to the main floor of the engine room.

The ruckus continued, the sounds of bolter-barks, crashes and howls of pain filling the air, punctuated by the occasional orkish insult.

"Sorry Ferenz, I had to kill one of the big ones after it noticed," reported Roxana, "They're coming."

"I guess it was too much to ask that their ranks be thinned down a bit more before they ate our heads," Aelian complained.  
"It's our guts they'll eat, they'll put our heads on spikes," Talan replied cheerfully, aiming down at the archway where the aliens would soon make themselves known.

"Oh sorry, my mistake," said the arbitrator, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

"WAAAGH!" came the roar, as the first group bumbled straight into the killzone.

Talan squeezed the trigger on his pulse carbine, holding the foregrip tightly. The sun-temperature blue pulses tore into the orks, eliciting a horrific smell of burning flesh. He continued to hose them down, until his magazine was spent. The foul aliens seized on the pause, and advanced up the stairs. Aelian then fired, catching the first two with Inferno rounds, making walking torches out of them. The orks behind hacked the unfortunate ones to death and tore past the burning corpses.

By the time they did, Talan had a fresh clip loaded. The plasma burst through the xenos bodies yet again. Still, the orks advanced.

The Inquisitor retreated quickly, Aelian in tow, to the top level. The Orks were gaining on them.

Mireya primed her grenades, and tossed them as Talan made it to her position. The explosions bloomed in the middle of the mob. All three of the humans now fired in unison at the still-defiant survivors, as they slipped and slided on the entrails of their dead counterparts. Finally, they broke. The stragglers didn't even bother to use the staircase, instead jumping down the gap in the middle.

"Ah bollocks," said Aelian, as a new mob shouldered its way into view.

Most of these seemed to be holding long-barrel bolters, or what an Ork could pass off as such at any rate. Muzzle-flashes rippled through the crowd, strobing light filling the space and revealing the ugly detail of the orkish faces in rather more detail than anyone would have liked. The bolts catapulted against the walls and supports. Talan ducked quickly around the corner, his acolytes with him. Roxana was still shooting, albeit at a much increased rate.

"The stairs are a loss," Talan said, and Mireya nodded. The group covered their ears and opened their mouths, as the techpriest sent the signal. The shockwave from the democharges placed under the stairs rode over them, followed by the crashing sound of the metal falling to the deck below.

"We've bought some time," Aelian said, "But they'll climb up."  
"But now we have their full attention," replied Talan, "Have we made contact with the enginseers below?"

Mireya confirmed that they had, adding that they were ready.

"Excellent, get them moving."

The order for the servo-skulls to attack was given. Talan watched from afar as the grot-handler was shot to pieces by the two floating devices, causing the gretchin who had been skulking about avoiding the brawls to scatter. The enginseers then got up and made directly for the airlock controls. The ones still in possession of legs, at any rate.

Talan grunted his satisfaction that this part of the plan had gone off smoothly, as Roxana dispatched an ork that had decided to try and climb up the side of the wall to get to the balcony. By now, reinforcements from whatever was docked with the ship would be making their way to help.

"The enginseers have sealed the airlocks, sabotaged the repressurisation system and are retreating to the life support room," Mireya reported, "If the orks try to open the airlock with force from the outside, it'll vent into space."

"Excellent."

Aelian's shotgun barked. Talan and Mireya turned to see what he was shooting at, and found a whole pack of kommandos advancing in good order down the long hallway from which they had originally arrived themselves.

"Roxana, we're going to need your help here!" Talan shouted, kneeling at the arch and shooting around its edge at the latest threat. Aelian and Mireya began to take turns at the other side, as Roxana came to the Inquisitor's side.

"We're stuck up here," said Aelian, rattling off a few shots with a bolt pistol now.

Multiple grenade blasts shot hot air and scrapnel through the archway, as the acolytes huddled at the edges to avoid the effects. Mireya and Aelian both fired as soon as the bombardment had stopped. Talan looked around. Their shotguns were having very little effect, the Orks were all wearing the same strange armour as the kommandos in the officer's lounge and medicae ward had been. They were also a lot closer than he was comfortable with.

Gritting his teeth, Talan saw only one option.

"With me!"

The Inquisitor tossed his one and only grenade blindly at the enemy, and ran towards the edge of the balcony. The others followed, as it detonated. A howl of pain followed. Bolts detonated close to their feet, but not close enough.

They jumped and fell hoping the Geller field generators would be low enough so that they wouldn't break their legs on landing. Mireya landed first with style, her mechadentrites allowing her to land crouching without falling. Talan had only a milisecond to be impressed before he landed badly. He rolled along the uneven surface, brusing half his body. He groaned, seeing that Roxana and Aelian had barely landed better. Mireya then offered her hand, and he took it to pull himself up.

"Move!" he ordered, as the roars of the Orks got louder from both above and below. The group ran awkwardly along the edge as the kommandos fired their _sluggas_ from the balcony. Talan knew it would only be a matter of time before they jumped themselves to try and bring their melee weapons to bear. The orks on the main deck on the other hand were less well armoured and had been seriously thinned out.

Talan jogged to the edge of the generator and jumped once again. This time he executed the landing nearly perfectly, just in time for an ork mek to try to jump on him from a small diagnostics platform. He shot the beast with his pulse carbine off the hip, as Mireya repeated her landing trick beside him and gave its less wary companion both barrels of her shotgun. Roxana and Aelian slid down a ladder as more orks began gathering to attack them.

They formed up shoulder to shoulder and fired into the mass of green bodies charging at them. Each salvo reaped a considerable harvest of orks, pulse fire bursting straight through bodies while buckshot sprayed many small and bloody holes in three at a time. Yet, the orks kept coming.

Talan's carbine clicked as he tried to pull the trigger. Empty. Cursing, he pulled the magazine out, and reached for another. A massive force threw him to the ground. He had been hit by a bolt, but it had been stopped by the flak jacket. A screeching began in his ears. Trying to get up, he found himself unable to as a sort of nausea set in. Spotting his weapon on the ground some yards ahead of him, he crawled forwards along the metal deck. Flashes and fire told him the battle was still on. He needed to keep fighting.

Suddenly, another impact. This time to his side. He rolled on the floor, pain coursing through his veins with every beat of his heart. He turned to see his assailant. A kommando stood, bringing a huge axe above its head as it spat laughter in triumph.

Lasbolts ripped into the side of the beast. It merely roared, turning away from Talan. It was a chance. Grabbing his long bayonet from its scabbard, the Inquisitor grabbed the xeno by its ragged bandolier of grenades, and shoved the blade into its eye repeatedly. It scrambled to pull him off, but the damage was done. It fell, bringing Talan with it, pinning him to the ground as it bled black-red all over him, twitching.

Unfortunately, this piece of desperate survival attracted a whole band of axe wielding xenos, and Talan couldn't see any of his acolytes. Exhausted, he tried to push the ork off of him in order to get to his weapon. He could still survive, he thought as he was barely conscious, disbelieving that he could be killed like this.

A barrage of lasbolts now washed over the enemy, accompanied by the occasional plasma burst. Stormtroopers now marched into view. They were in disciplined battle order, hellguns strobing at the orks. Talan couldn't believe his luck. Finally able to get out from under his dead opponent, he picked up his pulse carbine, and watched the last of the orks and gretchin get gunned down. They had made for the airlock and found it sealed. The sound of groaning metal echoed around the chamber as the docking port vented into space, and the shuttle it was attached to with it.

A single large kommando remained, now cut off from escape or reinforcements. It charged towards the Guardsmen, waving a huge curved blade. They did not fire, as another stepped forward, hellgun raised.

Colonel Artemis Mieza shot the brute in the legs, which slowed it down to say the least. With an outraged look, it fell as one of its knees gave way. It brought its slugga up to aim, but the guardswoman kicked it aside. With her wolf grin plastered on her face, Artemis delivered the coup de grace, before doffing her aquila-emblazoned kepi to her downed opponent.

It was over.

Talan staggered towards his saviours, shouldering his weapon as he did so. His acolytes emerged from the confusion at last as the stormtroopers dispersed, kicking corpses and delivering shots to anything that so much as twitched.

"Ferenz!" said Artemis, surprised, "You're alive?"

"Just about," he said, tearing his tattering flak jacket off.

"Your people thought you were shot."

"I was," he said, turning to see his acolytes salute him.

"After you got hit, the kommandos tried to jump us from above," Roxana explained, "We just kept fighting." Aelian nodded in agreement, while Mireya held her two servo-skulls close to her, satisfaction at a job well done on her face.

Talan laughed. "I would expect nothing less," he said, rubbing his chest as the pain throbbed.

Commissar Steiner and Major Kasky marched into view with reinforcements, including Greta. They all immediately saluted the Colonel as was proper, as it was obvious from the piles of Orkish corpses that the fighting was over.

"You did all of this?" asked Greta incredulously, stepping over a dead Ork.

"It was mostly me," Roxana said, smirking as she hoisted her rifle onto her hip.  
"I'm sure," said Mireya flatly, prodding her boastful counterpart with a mechadentrite.

"As I said before, most impressive," said Steiner, "Your reputation was mixed, but I am glad to see the best of it is true." Kasky merely nodded his approved. They both saluted once again, and then departed to order about the Guardsmen.

"You better get back to the cargo-bay and get everything ready," Talan said to Roxana, "We're going to be busy."

"Yes, my lord," replied Roxana, acknowledging the order with cheer. The sniper, the arbitrator and the techpriest left together, very pleased with their accomplishment.

Talan eyed Greta, who was trying to pry something off the dead Ork she was standing over.  
"So, you linked up with the group at the medicae bay?" he said, turning to Colonel Mieza.

"Yes, we managed to get into contact with our troops in the main hold," she explained, "The stormtroopers then pushed to the bridge, and we swept the ship. When we heard what you were up to, we rushed here to help."

"Then I owe you yet again," Talan smiled.  
"Yes, you do," said Greta, cutting in.

"I also owe you for covering my back," he continued, turning to the sergeant, "You're a compliment to your uniform."  
"You should see me behind a lascannon, sir."

"I have."

"I guess we're going to have to explain ourselves as to why we're a year late," Talan said, turning back to Mieza, "The Administratum isn't fond of anomalies."

"Still, it is good to be home," said Mieza, placing a boot on top of a dead ork, "Even if it is under attack."

"I best have a shower before we get there," said Talan as he gingerly pinched the bloody coagulated mess that used to be a Guard jacket he was wearing.

"Yes, you should," smiled Mieza.

She turned to Greta.

"Dismissed, Sergeant."


	5. Chapter 5: Praetorians and Governors

Piraeus was an ice-world, the outermost inhabited planet of Berdam. It was a fortress port, existing to defend both the economic and military safety of the entire system. This much was obvious to Talan. He watched it come ever-closer from his viewpoint on the Arvus lander taking him to the Governor-Militant and the system defence headquarters. Huge cargo vessels hung lazily beside orbital stations that ringed the planet, the dark bulk of both contrasting with the bright white background of the planet itself.

"Looks like the SDF are rallying here, for the moment. Even the cruisers are on station," Artemis muttered, moving close to Talan to look out the viewport, her eyes scanning the scene. Talan put his arms around her, as they watched the silent ballet of shuttles hurrying about their business. She paid no heed to it, continuing to look.

"Perhaps it is not as bad as we thought," Talan mused, trying to draw her in.

Artemis turned, recipricating the embrace now but with a frown on her face. She stabbed her finger onto the armourcrys viewport. "I suggest you look again."

The Inquisitor complied, unhappy that she had managed to spot something he had not, and inspected the planet once again. He started with the stations and found nothing out of order, but as soon as he turned his eyes to the planet, he noticed what he should have the first time.

"Ah," he said, "That's not good."  
"No, it is not," said Artemis, her eyes fixed on the scene now.

Something had crashed into the planet. A good number of somethings, if the pattern of smoke rising into the atmosphere was any indication. The orks had used asteroids as landing ships, a compulsion of theirs that every servant of the Emperor had good reason to curse. Evidently, they were repeating the favoured trick, and there were now Throne only knew how many orks on the planet. The planet Talan would soon be landing on.

"I don't suppose many people died when they landed?" Talan thought aloud.

"Doubt anyone at all did," Artemis said, freeing herself from him and walking over to her seat, "Piraeus is basically one big warehouse, practically nobody lives there."

"Ice world property must be cheap when you have six other planets with better weather," continued Talan, moving to his own seat after another glance at the ominous craters.

"It's a frakhole compared to home, I'll say that," Artemis replied, "Hope they're doing something about the green down there. I would prefer not to fight in that."

"Say things like that and they'll come true," Talan said, as he started buckling himself into his seat.

The warning chime for atmospheric entry pinged, and the lander continued on its way. The rest of the journey was far less comfortable, as the winds shook the shuttle often. To everyone's relief, not least Talan's, no anti-aircraft fire boomed against the hull or exploded nearby. The landing was equally rough however, as audible scraping of metal on ice rattled through the ship before finally stopping. The engines whined as they deactivated.

"Transport to take you to headquarters will be here soon," the pilot voxed.

The Colonel stood up and stretched. Talan eyed her, remaining seated. Her green dress uniform wasn't as form fitting as it could have been, but he didn't care. She had cut her hair since the last time he had seen her, and the brown strands reached only to her ears.

"Snap out of it," said Artemis suddenly, "We'll be in front of the Governor-Militant soon, and I can't have you gawping at my backside when we're presented."  
Talan grinned. She was too sharp by half. He stood up himself, put his own hat on.

"How do I look?" Talan asked seriously, "In your military opinion."

Artemis' eyes looked him up and down for an appreciable amount of time.

"You'll pass," she said at last, "You wouldn't make it as a regimental officer, everything is too new, but as a puke from Segmentum brass, it'll do."

"I guess it will have to," said Talan, pulling on his greatcoat.

The problem with hiding one's Inquisitorial status is that you had to pose as someone else with authority, more often than not. One bad mistake with a cover story, and you'd show your hand to anyone from gossiping hangers-on to possible heretics.

The cargobay doors swung open, and freezing air poured into the compartment. Talan started shivering immediately, and desperately pulled on some gloves, regretting immediately that he had not done so before. Artemis seemed less bothered by the cold as by the delay, to his bemusement.

A Taurox pulled up, and the pair were taken through the starport's collection of landed shuttles and concrete blast barriers to a bunker entrance. They disembarked, and their taxi drove away as snow started falling.

The two looked at each other.  
"What now?" Talan asked, his shivering making his voice waver slightly.

"Not sure. This is the first time I've ever been to System Command." Artemis replied, without a hint of discomfort, "I was a Lieutenant when I left for deployment."

Talan growled, and kicked the door. To his surprise, it opened.

A servitor stepped forward, a bolter attached to one shoulder held at rest to Talan's relief, and a gene-scanner attached to the other.

"Human. Human. Access granted."

The thing droned a little, before turning back and proceeding inside.

Artemis simply shrugged, and followed the construct. Talan hurried to do the same, glad to be out of the cold.

"Right this way, colonels," said a PDF trooper, appearing out of nowhere as the servitor powered down.

He lead the pair through the hidden door in the ferrocrete wall, and into the complex itself. A maze of passageways and checkpoints opened up in front of them. Every room or corridor they passed seemed to be buzzing with activity. Troopers and adepts ran past every now and again, on some errand or another essential to the running of the place. Talan noted this as another sign that the attack that was under way was not ordinary. Just as he began to wonder what all the fuss was about exactly, the group outside the "Action Information Centre", or so a large sign stated.

"Stay here," the trooper said, before moving away.

Seconds later, a general of the PDF opened the door. Talan saluted crisply, and the man motioned for them to enter.

The room was what Talan expected it to be. A huge circular space was well filled with communications equipment, auspex-screens, vox-relays, troopers seeing to these and techpriests fiddling with equipment to make sure everything kept functioning. The room seemed to be divided into eight sections, one for each of the terrestrial planets in the system. In the middle, a giant holo-projector displayed the entire system in three dimensions, as well as the runes for significant auspex contacts. The atmosphere was sullen however, Talan felt, the people there knew far more about the situation than those outside.

The general lead them to the middle of the room under the holo, where several officers and high-ranking civilians were arguing amongst themselves.

It was obvious immediately to Talan which of the dignitaries and military types the Governor was. A man of average height, with grey hair and an unremarkable yet distinctly military uniform, every other person in the circle looked to him as he spoke. Talan and Artemis were presented to the assembly in the middle of the row.

This time, both of them saluted.

"Colonel Artemis Mieza, 16th Berdam Armoured Regiment, Astra Militarum," said Artemis cleanly, before removing her kepi and holding it beside her.

"You're late," said the Governor, motioning for the two to sit, "Antipater Craterus, Lord Governor-Militant. And who is this?"  
Craterus pointed at Talan.

"My apologies," Talan said, "Colonel Ferenz Talan, Ultima Segmentum Command, Strategic Intelligence."

The Governor frowned. He had not expected the presence of a representative from Imperial command. "What brings you to Berdam? Are we to be the subject of an audit?" Craterus asked. A wave of consternation swept through the faces of those present.

"Nothing so taxing," Talan continued, "The Logis Strategos attached me to Colonel Mieza's regiment for observation. It is hoped that Berdamian armoured warfare techniques could be incorporated into the Tactica Imperium to some benefit against more mobile opponents of his Majesty's might."

An undignified and audible sigh of relief echoed across the table from all except the Governor. Talan thought nothing of it, audits by Segmentum Command often included a round of firing squads at their conclusion, mostly on charges of incompetence.

"Well then, we welcome you to Berdam," Craterus continued, restoring some order, "The resources of my governorship are open to you, to help in your endevour." Talan smiled. He had what he needed. The Governor seemed to be no fool either, swift and enthusiastic cooperation with Imperial mandates boded well. Talan decided he liked the man.

"May I ask what the situation is?" Artemis asked, "We saw impact craters on the way down."

"Of course. Colonel Beecham, would you please?"

A man in a red uniform with a domed helmet under his arm stood up. Talan's eyes widened at the sight of the man; he had the most enormous moustache the Inquisitor had ever seen. He was also no slight creature, being built almost like a Catachan. Artemis and Talan turned to each other in incredulity for a moment as he saluted them.

"Colonel Arthur Beecham, 224th Praetorian Guard, Berdam Garrison" the man said in an accent unlike anything Talan had heard, introducing himself politely, "Considering that we are the only two regiments of the Guard here, the situation is grim."

"Aside from the Sororitas," said the Governor. The mention raised hackles.  
"They're being less than cooperative," said Beecham, "They outright refused to send a representative to System Command."

The Praetorian poked the controls of the holo-projector, and the visual changed to that of Piraeus. "The Sisters aren't the problem at the moment," he said, "The damned orks have landed on the planet, and are rummaging through the warehouse and spaceport districts on the equator, looting what they can."

The SDF Admiral coughed to interrupt.  
"A large space attack dropped out of the warp two or three days ago, which we devastated with our orbital defences," she said, "It could be much worse." Talan knew someone trying to cover their own rear when he saw it. He suppressed the urge to say something,

"Except the orkish rapscallions may get their hands on serious hardware," Beecham complained, "And there are plenty more on the way whatever Admiral Alopexe here thinks the SDF did."

"Something massive is coming this way, the Navigators say," the Admiral conceded, "The first assault tested our defences and the remnants are skulking about in the halo, probably manufacturing more _roks_ to use as landing craft. We've moved the system fleet to Piraeus and Troia as well, we'll be better prepared."

"You said they're looting, what did they land nearby to?" Mieza asked Beecham.

"Mostly prefabricated hab units waiting for export," the Governor replied, "But they are dangerously close to a military storage facility containing many armoured vehicles."

"They're yours," Beecham added.

"Ours?" said Mieza, confused.

"Those bunkers hold the replacement equipment for your regiment, they have been sitting around for a year," he said, "The PDF have been trying to pry them from the hands of the Munitorum adepts for half that time, with no luck. Seem to enjoy complaining to me about it."

Artemis grinned in her usual lupine manner, leaning forward onto the table on her elbows.

"We'll just have to get there first, take what's ours and kill them all, won't we?"

Beecham simply stared, not sure what to say. After a moment, the Governor sat up in his chair. "Can you do it?" he asked.

"The 16th is a crack planetary assault regiment, my lord," Talan said, "Colonel Mieza also has experience fighting the Orks, if my reports are any judge."

"I have already ordered my air assault company to disembark first," Mieza added, "We can move quickly and secure the weapons, then fly in the crews to take control."

"The PDF were advocating containment, to wait for reinforcements," said Beecham, before shooting a dark look at the assorted generals, "Good to see one of you is not an imbecile."

The Governor stood up.

"If you can stop the Orks, you must do so," he said.

Artemis looked around the table and got to her feet, placing her kepi on. The room went quiet, as troopers got the attention of their fellows. The high command must have been bickering for days if it had gotten to this point, thought Talan.

Mieza straightened her uniform.

"This is my home," she said, "The xenos will be purged from it."

"We'll see," said the Governor, sitting down again.


	6. Chapter 6: Digging In

The Valkyries screamed as the came in to land, the freezing air visibly swirling around the gunships as they flew in perfect coordination. Ground crews in fat greatcoats and bright orange helmets were guiding them in with flags and vox instructions. Some distance behind them, the Air Assault company of the 16th Armoured Regiment stood around makeshift burners made out of oil drums, warming themselves in the hangers. They were ready to fight; weapons, grenades, ammunition packs and sidearms hung off them like vines on a wall.

Talan sat at the back of the hanger watching the scene. He felt the cold a lot less keenly now that he was out of a dress uniform and inside his carapace armour. His pulse rifle was slung on his back, a bolt pistol was attached to his leg near the knee, a power mace was at his waist, and his precious meltagun leaned against a crate the group was using for a table. He was ready.

The Inquisitor wasn't alone. Aelian sat beside him, drinking a quart of recaff with his shotgun across his legs. Roxana held her longshot-pulse in a similar manner, while talking to Mireya. All four of them were armoured and armed to the teeth.

The rest of the troops gave them a wide berth, not daring to crowd them like they were themselves.

"Looks like we're almost ready to go," Roxana said, looking in the direction of the transports, "The Valkyries are all landed."

"Wonder how many orks we'll be up against," said Aelian after polishing off his recaff at last, "Probably too many."

"Orks don't travel in numbers below 'too many' I'm afraid," replied Talan, standing up.

The stormtroopers near the entrance were leaving the hanger. The lieutenants began shouting to get the rest of the troops moving. A couple of hundred guards started moving, kicking out fires and finishing off food or beverages quickly as they did so.

As the crowd thinned, the imposing figures of Commissar Steiner and Major Kasky stood out. They were both in combat gear themselves. Chainswords, lasguns, pistols, armour, and helmets. The Commissar was himself in stormtrooper carapace, to Talan's surprise, while Kasky retained the standard flakjacket and greatcoat combination.

The Inquisitor grabbed his meltagun, and walked over to the two officers while cradling it across his chest. They looked at each other as he approached.

"Inquisitor, you're coming along with us?" asked Kasky, a tone of disbelief creeping in.

"Of course," said Talan, narrowing his eyes at the absurdity of the question, "Where else would I be?"

"I watched you pull a chunk of metal the size of my fist out of your side less than 48 hours ago," Steiner said, "And you looked like absolute hell the next time I saw you after that."

Talan chuckled, and turned to his acolytes. They were amused as well.

"I was well looked after by the medicae," he said finally, "I'm good to go. I promise, I won't get in the way."

"Never let it be said that you fail to surprise me, Talan," said the Major, before wandering off to direct his troops. Steiner simply looked bewildered.

"Besides, I care deeply about the Berdamian people," joked Talan, as Colonel Mieza walked into view, Greta in tow. She spotted him and wandered over, eliciting salutes as she moved.

"At ease," Artemis said to Steiner, who was saluting despite not actually being compelled to by regulations. She started rapping her knuckles off the tanker helmet on her head. "This is much better."

"Eager to murder some orks?" Roxana asked.

"Very," she replied, "But I have to coordinate the operation and the rest of the regiment's deployment, so I'll be sitting in a Chimera for this one."

"Holy Throne Ferenz!" Greta said excitedly, "Are you going tank hunting?" The woman eyed the melta with a look bordering on glee.

Steiner coughed loudly and gave her his sternest stare. She immediately stood as straight as she could, her face telling all present that she had forgotten the commissar's presence and was regretting the slip of tongue. "My apologies, Commissar."

"Apologise to the Inquisitor, not me," he replied.  
"At ease, Sergeant-Gunner," Talan said, "Technically, I'm not in the military."

"Sergeant-Gunner Iokheira, keep a good sense of decorum in the presence of officers," Artemis said firmly, before shooting Talan a withering look. He mouthed an apology. The Inquisitor regarded military formality as tedious on occasion. Greta had proven herself when the Orks attacked their transport, and so he had grown fond of her.

"I must join the stormtroopers," said Steiner at last, saluting, "The Emperor Protects."  
"Ave Imperator," said Talan by reflex. The commissar stalked away to a Valkyrie.

"I never know whether what that man is thinking."

"Well, we must be off as well," Artemis said, "Duty calls."

She waved Greta to move. The gunner grimaced at the prospect of being sat in a Chimera with nothing to do, but started to comply.

"Would you care to join us?" Mireya asked Greta, drawing the same conclusion as Talan had, "Your help was invaluable last time." The soldier turned to her superior, a hopeful look in her eyes.

Artemis gave Talan a glance, looking to see if he approved. He did nothing.  
"It's not like we have a Russ to put you in yet," she sighed, "Try not to get yourself killed."  
"Thank you, ma'am," Greta said, giving an enthusiastic salute.

"Come on then, not much time left," said Aelian to Greta, motioning with his shotgun.

"For the orks, anyway," added Roxana.  
The acolytes and the guardswoman walked off into the wind, towards the Valkyrie that had been discreetly set aside for the Inquisitorial party's use.

"Good luck," said Artemis. Talan took her hand and gave it a squeeze. "Thank you," he said quietly. With a smile, he let go and marched off to join his subordinates.

The trip to the warehouse district took an hour. An hour of rattling around in the back of gunship that soon had Talan regretting his decision to do what he could to help. He took to distracting himself by listening on his commbead to the operation unfolding. The orbital scans of the area indicated the Orks had discovered that there wasn't something worth taking in the area, and so they had spread out to look for better pickings. He wasn't sure yet whether that would make their job easier or harder.

"Two minutes to landing zone," said Kasky by the vox, "Steiner, you're in first."  
"We'll join him," Talan said, cutting in.

"Acknowledged. LZ may be hot, all units, combat landings."

Talan wondered for a moment what that meant, but the answer came by itself. The rear ramp opened, revealing that the Valkyrie was flying very close to the ground. Warehouse roof after roof passed by at speed, covered in ice and punctuated by roads and railway lines.

He made his way towards the ramp.  
"Get ready to jump off."

The speed of the gunship started to bleed off quickly, and as it came to a halt, the ramp clanked onto the rockcrete. Talan immediately ran down the ramp, followed by his acolytes, scrambling to make it off. As Greta's boots left the ramp, the pilot gunned the engine and the Valkyrie took off again.

The stormtroopers were being dropped off in a similar manner, albeit with more graceful deployment.

"The bunker entrance is this way," said Talan, "Let's go."

Greta and Aelian were on point, covering the gateways to the huge storage facilities as they moved, while Mireya and Roxana strolled with Talan. No sound of fighting could be heard, and Steiner reported no enemies ahead, so the group settled into a more relaxed stance.

"All these are full of prefab habs?" asked Roxana.

"So I'm told," said Talan.  
"When the system was liberated from the Eldar three thousand, two hundred and twenty four years ago, they found STC hardcopies for habitation units here," Mireya explained, "Along with one for the Avenger pattern boltcannon. Good hab units are very profitable in all cases. Weapon designs the rest of the galaxy already has, less so."

"Good to know someone did the research," joked Roxana.

"Hope they've got some of those cannons lying around," said Aelian from the front.

"Our attack birds use them," confirmed Greta, checking a corner.

"We best get moving," Aelian continued, "Won't be long before the Orks notice we're here."

The trio taking up the rear complied with the request. The group moved to the next block, and found Steiner and his stormtroopers taking up a defensive position on the edge of a huge space. The wind whipping around didn't seem to stop a wash of activity from the soldiers. They were putting small sections of hab-walls together and arranging them as makeshift pill-boxes, and rigging charges further out.

"We beat the Orks to the punch," Steiner said as they wandered up, "They're across this disused landing strip, somewhere."  
"Why didn't we land here?" Talan asked.

"Heat blooms on auspexes," Steiner replied, "They're over there with machines of some kind right now. Vehicles most likely. Couldn't take the risk of being overrun by that."

Talan looked across to the other side of the open space, something was causing snow to fall off the roofs of the warehouses a kilometre across the flat space. He hoped it was just the wind.

"Well, they're going to notice us eventually," he said, "What's the plan?"

"Orders are to hold here, and protect the gate until air cover and reinforcements arrive."  
The Commissar pointed to the huge gate entrance behind them, built to look like any of the other warehouses in pretty much every way, except that these doors were bigger, looking far more sturdy and the locks more intricate.

"Surely there are other entrances?" added Roxana.

"Yes, but they're now behind our lines," Steiner replied.

"That may be an optimistic assessment," said Talan, "The enemy had whole mobs of kommandos when we were attacked on the way."  
"There's no reason to believe they came down in this assault," said Steiner, "Major Kasky will soon be here, and we'll set up a firing line along this side of the field. The greenskins will do what they do, and we'll chew them to pieces."

"Perhaps, but we must operate as if they will get into the bunker from another direction," Talan said, waving for Mireya to come over. He ordered her to bypass the doors to get them to open if they needed it.

"Why not just call HQ for the codes?" asked Greta, as Mireya trotted away to talk to the security system's cogitator.

"Because I would like to get the codes long before I'm up to the gills in ork."

"Sergeant, the Administratum are not known for their haste," Steiner explained.

"Ah. Don't really talk to those types much," Greta said, rubbing her hands together for warmth, "Is it getting colder out here?"

"It'll be night soon," said Aelian, checking his watch.

"Looks like we have company," said Steiner, peering out of amplivisors across the way.

Engine noises echoed faintly across the space.

"Attack group, orbitals indicate enemy are massing for an attack a kilometre and a half from your position. Enemy groups are abandoning their positions and making their way to your position." The vox crackled as the adept from HQ passed on the intelligence. The Commissar took it with the stoicism expected of any graduate of the schola progenium.

"Command, advise," said Steiner into his vox-piece.

"The Major is almost on the ground," replied Mieza, "The Valkyries will return and pick up the mechanised company's infantry to reinforce you once he is there. The Vulture section will join them, we've finally got them down from orbit, but they need to be fueled and armed first."

"Copy, we'll dig in as best we can," replied the Commissar.

Talan shifted his weight, thinking to himself. The Orks were displaying excellent tactical sense. Before Imperial reinforcements arrived, they could overrun the bunker quite easily after building up their numbers. If they attacked immediately, they wouldn't have enough numbers to overwhelm the stormtroopers alone, never mind Major Kasky. They had not attacked, meaning they were either aware that they couldn't win yet or they had some other plan.

Mireya called the Inquisitor over to the reinforced gate, the incense burning on the devotional plate beside her drifting over.

"Something is blocking access," she said as they arrived, "Disrupting my attempts to open the door with high level command codes and override prayers."

"So you can't get the door open?" asked Aelian, "Should we just blast the doors off?"

"It would take a melta charge to blow a big enough hole in these for just one person to fit through," Mireya continued, looking amused by the suggestion, "But I can get the doors open, it will require more time."

"I don't imagine the interference is coming from orks," said Talan, familiar enough with locked doors and orks to know they would simply smash any such mechanism.

"No, someone inside the bunker is performing security rituals at a console," the techpriest continued, "Thankfully, they are not someone initiated in the Mechanicus, so all they are doing is delaying us. It may take some hours to get it open, however."

Talan looked at the defence line, which by that point was considerable, as Kasky's troops finally arrived, looking cold but combat-ready nonetheless. Once the firing line was ready, there was little doubt they could hold out for days as opposed to hours. "Then I suppose we hunker down here," he said finally, "Mireya, do what you do best and get these open."

Magos Modena made the sign of the cogwheel, then turned back to the lock console, lighting more incense with one of her mechandentrites and speaking in binary.

Talan uttered a small prayer to the Emperor, asking that the reinforcements arrive as soon as possible, and for the doors to open should that fail. A whole bunker full of tanks wouldn't hurt, after all.


	7. Chapter 7: Going Ugly

The sun had set, and darkness swept over the troops as the clouds hid any hint of light from the skies. The Major had ordered that no fires be lit, so the mood was sour to say the least. Thankfully, the pre-fabricated hab modules that Steiner had taken from the warehouses were extremely easy to set up as defences. The front of the bunker now looked like a small fortified village, the open spaces that would have made the defence impossible now filled with walls, cabins and rooms. It also kept the worst of the wind away, to the relief of the men and women. Talan and his party sat in the redoubt, which had been put up directly in front of the gate as the fallback plan.

It had been nearly two hours since the Valkyries left to pick up reinforcements, and there had been no sign of either the ork attack or Imperial forces.

Talan was catching up on some sleep when Mireya entered the building. She shook some snow off of her armour and robes, the freezing wind waking the Inquisitor up. He was far from alone, as groans from his other acolytes bounced around the room in short order.

"Well, do we have our way in?" asked Talan, before yawning widely.

"The protocols are in place," replied the techpriest, "I have done what I can, it is up to the Omnissiah now."

"More waiting in the cold," complained Aelian, "Whoever it is stopping us from doing our job, I'm going to enjoy bringing the Emperor's justice to them."

"If you can get to the bastard before I can," muttered Greta, drawing her greatcoat around her closer.

Talan stood up, working the sleep out of his joints as Mireya handed Greta a flask of recaff. He nudged Roxana with his foot, who was still fast asleep. She cracked open an eye.

The sound of lasfire and worse started. Roxana's eyes shot open the rest of the way, and she took Talan's arm to stand up. Wordlessly, the group put their helmets back on, and proceeded outside.

Rushing between the buildings, they made for first barricades. Squads of troopers headed in the same direction, weapons held firmly and running at pace. Talan soon saw why.

The scene was not likely to be forgotten by anyone present for the rest of their lives. The mass of Orks gathered across the frozen tarmac most definitely outnumbered their human opponents. Talan, and everyone else, was far more concerned by what was with them. Dreadnoughts of crude construction but obvious lethality waddled within the horde, their engines spitting fire out of broken exhaust pipes. The flickering light was joined by flaming torches and looted luminators. A fiery green wave was advancing.

"I need meltas up here, now!" roared Major Kasky into a vox, as troops began finding positions to fire, "And for the Emperor's sake, don't fire again until they're actually in range."

Talan approached.

"Where do you need us?" he asked.

"Have you got that bloody door open yet?"

"We've done what we can, we have to wait for the cogitator to do its work and it should open automatically after some time."

"Well then, you best join Steiner at the very front," said the Major, "We'll need your melta up front to deal with the walkers."

"By your command, Major," Talan replied.  
"Go with the Emperor," Kasky said, before barking at a guardswoman to move herself further forward.

The Inquisitor spotted Commissar Steiner's distinctive cap some distance ahead.

The troops of Kasky's air assault company were the veterans of the regiment, drawn from the mechanised company and matched only by the First Platoon in terms of experience. Yet, these were children compared to the stormtrooper platoon now under the command of Steiner. Talan looked them over as his retinue waded through their position at the very edge of the defences.

The Commissar wasn't surprised when Talan tapped him on the shoulder.

"Inquisitor, I hoped you'd be joining us on the pointy end of things," he said, "The enemy are almost in range."

His acolytes lined up behind the chest-height wall, and aimed their weapons forward.

"Permission to fire," said Roxana, aiming down the scope of her longshot.

"Granted."

The acolyte began firing, plasma pulses streaking towards the enemy. It was impossible to see if she had hit anything significant, but the greenskins did seem to pick up their pace.

"This is Kasky, first ranks, open fire!" came the order.

The entire line began shooting, and the Orks were struck as if by lightning by hundreds of laser hits every second. The front of the enemy wave broke, ripped to shreds by the sheer weight of fire levelled against them. However, the flanks of the enemy kept moving, and so did the walkers. Return fire from the contraptions started in earnest, rockets and high calibre rounds whistling over the defences and impacting the ground in front.

Talan ducked behind the wall, and cut into the command channel to see how far the reinforcements were from arriving. It was difficult to hear over the constant sound of gunfire and cursing, but he finally succeeded.

"We're not far out," said Artemis over the vox, "The air support should arrive before we do, that should let you hold out until we get onto the ground."  
"We may not have the time," said Kasky rather calmly.

Having gotten the information he wanted, Talan looked back over the wall at the enemy. They were _much_ closer than they had been a minute before. The stormtroopers directly in front of his position were fixing bayonets to their lasrifles. The xenos' dreadnoughts were also closing the gap at an alarming rate. Talan hauled his meltagun to rest on top of the barrier, and warned the troops in front to duck. It was at the very edge of the melta's range, but the closest walker was just close enough.

The Inquisitor triggered the melta, its flash illuminating the entire mob of orks directly in front of him. In a split second, the walker was hit. Some of its armour burned into slag, but the _deff dread _kept coming. Talan cursed, ducking as the xeno machine fired off a few rounds in his direction.

The orks reached the first lines, and the stormtroopers reacted with grim discipline, falling back to the next line behind a hail of frag grenades. The explosions had the desired effect. Maimed orks bellowed in pain, tearing through the hab sections. The walkers kicked both orks and metal walls out of the way, before firing at the next line of defences.

"Section, heavy weapons!" ordered Steiner, and scions with meltas appeared in perfect choreography. Their shots lit up the line blindingly, and several walkers fell, their fronts bubbling away to the ground, yellow and red with heat.

One of the walkers struck back immediately, spraying burning promethium at a squad to Talan's right, killing at least half of them. Orks were directly in front of their position now as well, though they were holding well, with shotgun and pulse fire reaping a rich crop of greenskin corpses. The line had been broken, as an ork mob with axes and pistols poured through the gap made by the flamer-toting walker. The remains of the squad there fought ferociously, but were badly outnumbered.

Talan's retinue and the stormtroopers retreated by fire and movement, following Steiner's orders. With the sudden decrease in las shots, the Orks rushed forward, shouting with anticipation of kills and loot. They began hacking and shooting injured scions to death, delaying them for a crucial moment.

As soon as the survivors had made it to the makeshift bunkers, the charges were detonated. Demo-charges and braces of frag grenades blew up in a wave across the Ork front from left to right, det-cord hissing past quickly to announce the explosion of the next set of charges. Ork bodies were torn apart, flung around the place, and burnt to a crisp by the combination, while several walkers were caught in the wrong place and were destroyed.

When the bombs stopped, the luminators attached to the bunkers were kindled, revealing a scene of utter carnage. Broken walls, dead and disemboweled orks, and wrecked vehicles filled the space where there had only been shadows before. Yet there were still plenty of xenos left alive, and they were picking themselves up quickly. The air assault veterans opened fire from their covered positions, as the Tempestus troops moved to cover the flanks.

The ork advance was turned, the shattered mobs retreating to regroup. The _killa kans_ and _deff dreads _that remained were knocked out in short order, tipping over as well placed melta hits removed their legs or simply disintegrating with multiple shots before exploding.

The Berdamians cheered, a great clamour of elation that they had thrown back the enemy. Roxana joined in, and it spread like a contagion until even Talan was cheering.  
"Well done, boys and girls," said Kasky by vox.

"Report, Major," asked Artemis.

"Enemy attack has been repelled," said Kasky, "The bunker is secure."

As if to confound the Major's optimism, a huge Ork blundered into the path of the luminators. The alien was wearing huge slabs of plasteel as armour, decorated with the inevitable runes that the orks scrawled on everything they possessed. It was soon joined by more, similarly equipped Orks, all of them gnashing their _power-klaws_ in a display of intimidation. More walkers stomped in behind them.

"Stratch that, enemy has regrouped!" said Kasky after a stunned moment of silence.

The heavily armoured warriors pounded forward over the broken corpses of their underlings, the armoured _nobs_ charging to get to grips with their enemy. The walkers hung back, lashing rockets and bolts. Hits rocked the makeshift bunkers, as the lasgun barrage started again with a great deal less effect on the Orks than before. Their armour was primitive but effective.

Roxana and Talan joined the troops with their pulse weapons, which were considerably more effective, but it was like trying to hold back the sea with a bucket. The orks soon reached the scarred line of corpses where the charges had been, and did not look likely to stop there. Aelian and Mireya picked up lasrifles and joined Greta in coordinating shots, all three of them shooting the same ork to down it before turning to the next.

"Gryphus squadron on station, danger close, going ugly," said the vox.

Like black-winged angels, the Vulture gunships swooped down onto the Orks. Their boltcannons growled, and ripped lines of xenos to shreds. Walkers began firing wildly into the sky to little effect, trying to down the newcomers, while the nobs redoubled their efforts to make it to the Imperial lines. Their numbers were reduced, but not enough to stop them.

"Major, the bunker door is opening," reported a guardsman by vox, "Shall we enter?"

"No, hold your position," he replied.

"Inquisitor, my protocols could not have not finished by now," said Mireya, "My ministrations did not open the door."

"The orks are in the bunker," reported Talan, "We need to get back."

Kasky ordered the retreat to the redoubt, and the troopers ran with abject haste to escape the aliens' wrath. Talan and Roxana brought up the rear, their weapons spitting plasma at the enemy as they took it in turns to move to cover behind doubled up hab-walls. The _meganobz_ at the front of the ork assault tore through the bunkers with their power-weapons like they were butter, knocking aside the remains.

A Vulture swung in to assist, stitching the nobs with shots. Several were downed quickly, but the hovering gunship was an easy target. The orks returned fire. An unlucky shot blew through the canopy, causing it to swing away wildly, before making a very rough landing on top of the nearest warehouse. Talan hoped the crew had survived as he ran to the next piece of cover, Roxana sniping at the orkish survivors to allow him the time to move.

Still, the aliens came, and as the Inquisitor's group finally made it to the redoubt, there looked to be no end in sight of the enemy. The gunships continued to tear into the horde, concentrating on the walkers now. Hunter-killer missiles hissed off their rails and slammed into the more formidable looking specimens. The redoubt was ablaze with muzzle flashes. The line held by a thread.

The roar of more engines filled the sky. The Valkyries had arrived. Talan praised the Emperor as the alien horde began to bend under the fire from the sky, but they seemed to continue forwards. They knew, Talan realised, they knew the gateway to the bunker would open. The horde ignored the withering fire from both the redoubt and the gunships like it was nothing but rain to them, edging ever closer to their prize.

With such ferocity and confidence in their victory, the first armoured orks reached the redoubt. Ripping a wall down and then using it like a ramp, they began to tear men and women to pieces. The rest of the greenskins soon moved to converge on the hole, spotting the weakness in the line of walls and firing slits. Talan and Roxana drew a bead on them, and emptied their magazines firing into the group of rampaging nobs. They downed more than half of the targets, but the orks still made it into the redoubt itself.

Yet all was not yet lost. A Chimera tore into view, firing its heavy bolter as it did. Behind it, platoons of guardsmen and guardswomen ran, moving to get to grips with the enemy. The ork boyz charging to join their better armoured counterparts redirected towards the new threat, but were met with a tongue of flame, incinerating them. Talan watched the scene with grim satisfaction, as orks had their flesh burnt off their bones.

Artemis appeared in the cupola of the vehicle, and started hosing down yet more of the maddened enemy with her heavy stubber. Seeing that she had that entirely under control, the Inquisitor directed his acolytes to find the enemy that had gotten through the lines. It didn't take much effort. The nobs who had reached the lines were surrounded and pumped full of las shots. They remained on their feet. The stormtroopers had moved to attack them, but were being eviscerated by the most heavily armoured of them. The orks would not stop there.

"We need to get their attention," said Talan, subvocalising as they peered around the corner. Roxana nodded, and ran at the enemy. "WAAAGH!" she shouted in her best impression of the enemy, shooting off the hip. The nearest armoured greenskin went down, though it had been considerably worse for wear to begin with as far as Talan could see.

The surviving aliens were stunned with rage, their eyes flickering with shock before turning to malice. Roxana wisely retreated back the way she came, as they chased her through the cluttered habs. The others were ready.

Talan and Greta stopped the charge cold from the front as Roxana joined them, laying down heavy fire on the first ork. The foul things were bottlenecked inside the buildings, the roofs just big enough to accommodate them. Mireya descended on them from above, using her mechadentrites to place adhesive krak grenades from roof hatches. The orks fired wildly upwards, unable to get at the charges due to the bulk of their armour. The lucky ones blew apart, those not so lucky were crippled. The survivors rallied, at which point Aelian tore down a loose panel of wall. The last were the least fortunate ones, as his shotgun barked and inferno rounds set them ablaze, white phosphorous cooking the aliens alive in their own armour or cracking their skulls.

"Fire burns away the corruption of the mutant, heretic and alien alike," said Aelian as Talan approached with Roxana and Greta. A very satisfied grin on his bearded face, the arbitrator fired at the soon-to-be corpses for good measure. The Inquisitor, pleased by the man's work, simply fired a few shots into the writhing orks himself.

The remaining orks attacking the redoubt finally broke and ran, chased by disciplined volleys from the fresh troops. Kasky's men just slumped down to rest, taking potshots as they did so. The fatigue and relief was visible in their faces as Talan congratulated each group he walked past Some returned the gesture, the display his retinue had put on had been visible to many of them, Talan guessed. The gunships, having finished off the walkers, now began putting the retreating greenskins to death from above.

When the aliens were either dead or too distant to shoot at, Talan wandered over to the command vehicle, leaving his acolytes. When he got there, Artemis was rattling off a few more rounds downrange. He called up to her, repeating himself when she failed to hear him over the din of her stubber.

The Colonel stopped firing, and looked to see who was calling. She smiled, and ordered the gunships to keep chasing the enemy, before jumping down from her perch on the Chimera to join him.

"You tore them to pieces," she said, viewing the piles of plasteel walls and corpses that stretched out onto the airstrip some distance.

"Kasky and Steiner know their trade, I'll say that," Talan said, taking a swig from his waterflask, "But this isn't over."

Artemis turned, eyebrow raised.

"The doors opened themselves," he explained, "I'm going to have to take a kill-team down into the bunker, to find the kommandos or whatever else is down there."

"Would it not be easier to bring Elodia's company?" she said.

Talan pondered this for a moment. He had thought to bring the stormtroopers, but they had almost been wiped out. 'Elodia' as Artemis called her was the mechanised infantry commander. Perhaps this was a better plan, the stormtroopers had almost been wiped out and Kasky's men were in no state for a tunnel clearing operation

"Very well," he said finally. She grabbed the protruding voxpiece on her helmet, and spoke into it.

"The PDF command have been informed, and are impressed," Artemis continued, "If things continue like this, we'll easily get the forces we want. With any luck, enough to kick the Tau into the warp."

"Good to hear," said Talan, buoyed by the possibility, "Who knows, maybe you'll make general."

Artemis laughed. "I might prefer Governor-Militant," she said, only half joking.

"That can be arranged," yawned Talan.

Captain Elodia Machel presented herself, and saluted.

"The Inquisitor will require assistance," Artemis said, "Break off a platoon and prepare to enter the bunker."  
"Yes, ma'am," replied the Captain, not looking pleased at the prospect.


	8. Chapter 8: Inside the Bunker

Mireya's servo-skulls zipped past as Talan marched first into the gloom of the bunker, his pulse carbine shouldered at the ready. Behind him, his acolytes and three squads of troopers followed. They too had their weapons at the ready, bayonets fixed. Talan noted their faces had a sort of grim look, and he was unsure if they were afraid or not.

The lights were out, and Mireya had been unable to figure out why. The locking console had died soon after, the reason for the power loss impossible to determine from the gateway. Eager to know just what the hell was going on, the Inquisitor had ordered an immediate advance.

The corridor, easily wide enough to fit two Leman Russes side by side, continued for a kilometre and a half according to the signage. "1,500m" it had said at the gate. Nothing but smooth ferrocrete filled the luminators for some time. When the platoon made it to the "150m" sign, Talan called for a halt.

If the greenskins were down there, they certainly had not got at the tanks, Talan reasoned to himself, the engine noise would be deafening. Captain Machel crept up to where he was kneeling against the wall, ahead of anyone else.

"What's the plan, sir?" she said, taking a knee and aiming down the passageway.

Talan glanced at her for a moment, and then back down towards their target.

"Shoot a flare down there," he said, pointing, "Make it two."

"Any particular colour, sir?" replied the Captain, the sarcasm oozing from her disembodied voice in the dark.

"Just do it," said Talan impatiently, "And don't call me sir, I'm an inquisitor not a colonel."  
"My apologies," she said quickly, "I just meant that we'd be giving our position away."  
"I know, but I'd rather not fight Orks where they can jump out of the shadows and shove a rusty blade through my stomach," he said. The memory of the poor woman caught by the kommando on the transport ship came to the front of his mind.

Captain Machel got up, and ordered her staff-sergeant to fire the flares. Her resentment was quite evident in her voice, Talan noted. He wasn't surprised, her company had taken a severe mauling in the final battle on Falasten where the Tau had ripped into the regiment. Half the reason they were in Berdam at all was to receive reinforcements.

The flash of the flare leaving the barrel of an oversized pistol brought Talan back to the here and now, and he watched it bounce off the roof halfway to the end of the passage. It landed at the edge of yet another set of blast doors, almost identical to the ones on the surface. These were open just enough for a person to step under them, but no higher. The next flare landed slightly inside the next chamber, revealing walkways stretching out into the darkness.

The Captain flinched as the flares landed, and she ordered ranks to be formed, as if her fears of innumerable bellowing orks charging her troops were already reality.

Talan stood up and walked calmly towards the opening. His acolytes followed out of instinct, trusting in his judgment. A quick glance back was enough for him to confirm that the soldiers were following. He let out a little laugh. The Captain's caution or dislike for him was not going to slow him getting to the bottom of whatever nonsense was happening.

They reached the blast doors as the flares fizzled out, darkness enveloping the forty or so people crowding under the low door.

The Captain, having decided there weren't any orks to worry about, sent up some more flares. The walkways were suspended some twenty feet above another floor, which swung wide from the entrance in both directions. The ground below was far from empty; row after row of armoured vehicles stood, their markings glowing red with the number 16. Chimeras, Leman Russes, Hydras, and Salamander Scouts formed into ranks as if they were soldiers and not machines.

"Well, I think it's fair to say they're definitely yours," said Talan.

"These look better than the stuff we had before," she noted, eyeing the Chimera's intently.

"Then you best go down and secure them. And radio Colonel Mieza, I'm sure she'll be wanting to get into her command tank as soon as possible."

The Captain walked off, looking much happier now. Talan sighed.

"Have your little friends found the way to the main cogitator banks or a control room?" he asked, directing the question at Mireya.

"I believe so," she said, "There are three lifesigns ahead though."  
"Only three?" said Roxana in disbelief, "Couldn't be orks."

"Probably administrative staff," said Aelian, "There always tends to be some in places like this to stop pilfering."  
"We'll just have to go see," Talan said, "Show the way, Madame Modena."

Mireya strode away down the central walkway, leading the others.

Fifteen minutes later, the lights turned back on, revealing the massive extent of the chamber. After the rows of vehicles stopped, crates stacked almost as high as the walkway started, and continued on for as far as the eye could see. Talan inquired about this to Mireya as they walked.

"Heavy weapons for Berdam's PDF," she said, "They currently have four hundred regiments under arms, forty of which are tithed to the Guard. Half of them are mechanised infantry regiments. Records indicate that the system government ordered the production of many more weapons recently, and they are currently stored here."

"Good job finding those records," said the Inquisitor.  
"Many more weapons for what?" Aelian asked, giving voice to Talan's thoughts, "What do they need them for?"  
"A fight, what else?" said Roxana, "They're tooling up for some sort of war, and I don't think it's the Orks they were expecting."  
"I guess we have a few questions for the Governor when we get back," Talan said, "In the mean time, let's find out who tried to stop us getting in."

With the lights on, the central control room was now more than a shadow. It hung like a beehive from the ceiling, with walkways running out of it in all directions.

Talan picked up his pace now, returning to a combat mindset. He sprinted the last yards to the door, and kicked it in violently, entering the room with his pulse carbine raised. The room was filled with cogitators, scribe servitors and desks overflowing with documents. If there were people in here, they were hiding. Roxana, Aelian and Mireya moved in and began spreading out without a sound. They knew the drill.

"If there's anyone in here, by authority of the Astra Militarum, I demand that you show yourself," roared Talan, "You have ten seconds before we open fire." He began the countdown, saying each number as loudly as he could. The sound of hushed voices broke out from the other side of the room.

Talan continued counting, while Roxana and Aelian moved in on the source of the whispering. As he reached zero, the both of them grabbed something and dragged it out from behind a series of cogitator banks. The acolytes held two Administratum scribes by the scruff of their robes, both of whom looked scared out of their wits. Roxana used the barrel of her longshot-pulse to prod the inevitable third person out of their hiding place, this one being a more senior adept.

The three were dragged before Talan and dumped at his feet.

"I presume you're the man in charge?" he said to the adept, "Care to explain why you were obstructing the servants of the Emperor from their duties?"  
The adept scowled to himself for a moment.

"Answer, or I will blast your head from your neck," said Aelian, brandishing his shotgun.

"He'll do it too," said Talan in a less threatening tone, "You may yet live if you simply talk."

"The PDF and the Guard garrison commander have been talking loudly about seizing the weapons here," he said finally, "I was assigned to prevent them from doing it quickly, so we would have time to mount a complaint to the government before they had actual control."

"I used Imperial codes to try to access main door three," Mireya said, "It was you who stopped the immediate opening prayer?"  
The adept nodded quickly. "I thought you were that Praetorian brute and his thugs."

"Why did you open the doors?" asked Aelian.

"Because of the orks."

The acolytes bristled with the menace of the notion that the orks were inside.

"Where are the orks?" demanded Talan, "And how are you still alive?"

"They broke in via the secondary personnel access tunnel," the adept explained, "The alarms went off, so we locked the doors and hid down here while they ransacked the upper level. They've already left, or at least, the sounds have stopped."

Talan was far from amused at this news. The Orks had made it inside, but failed to act in the manner of their species when presented with a huge cache of weapons. The big green fingerprints of kommandos were all over this.

"What is on the upper level?" he asked the adept.

"Vox relay and inventory papers," the man replied.

Talan understood immediately. The kommandos had been sent in to let the main strike force through the main doors. When the adept had opened them to allow Talan and his group in, the kommandos assumed they had completed their mission and buggered off. Probably not before using the vox to broadcast the exact position of the bunker to every greenskin in the system, just in case.

This left the adept in a very poor position. He had not only obstructed the Imperial Guard at a critical moment, but also allowed the position of the bunker to be compromised.

"Arbitrator Cosano, he's all yours," said Talan, handing the matter over to one better qualified than he to decide. He grabbed the scribes and dragged them away from what was about to happen next.

Aelian moved in front of the kneeling adept.

"Were you aware that the Orks were in the system?" he asked in a quiet voice.

"Eh, yes," the adept replied, clearly confused as to how that was relevent.

"Then under the authority of the Adeptus Arbites, protectors of the Lex Imperialis, you are hereby guilty of obstructing his Majesty's agents in the course of their duties, criminal negligence in a time of war, and cowardice as a guardian of his Majesty's holy arms of battle under the auspices of the Departmento Munitorum. The sentence for these crimes is death by firing squad, at the discretion of the presiding officer."

Aelian's voice boomed across the room. The adept grew paler, if such a thing were possible.

"P-please, I know things, secrets, I can help you!"

"You know how many times I've heard that before?" said Aelian, raising his shotgun, "If you know of heresies, you should have reported them long before now."

"I didn't know who to trust, anyone with the authority to help could have been in the loop," the man continued. That got Talan's attention, because it made sense. He came back to Aelian's side.

"Fine, tell us and you'll live. In a prison, but you'll live."

The man contrived to become even more terrified.

"Anything but that!" he cried, "They'll send me to Sisyphus, and I know what happens there!"

"Sisyphus?" asked Aelian of his superior.

"Innermost inhabited planet of Berdam," answered Mireya, "It's a penal mining colony."

"People disappear from there," the adept continued, "Thousands or more."  
"How do you know this?" asked Aelian.

"I was involved in ore projections and supply schedules," he said, "Production is too low and the amount of food traded far too scarce to support the official population."

"I know of places like that, there was one near Langarus. They dump people from all over the sub-sector with mining equipment, point where to mine and trade the ore for the essentials," said Roxana, "Usually, the miners end up fighting each other constantly to get more food."

"I don't know or care what's happening exactly, just don't send me there," said the adept desperately, "What I do know is that the Governor-Militant sells the place to neighbouring systems as a place to dump their dissidents, heretics and worse for a fee."

Talan frowned. Corruption of this sort was far from uncommon in the Imperium, but it didn't really fall under his jurisdiction. Big penal colonies were supposed to be run by the Administratum, partially as temporary holding areas for transfers to the Penal Legions. However, where there was corruption of one sort, it tended to follow that other types lay buried as well. Though he reckoned it was possible the Governor was unaware of it. The man didn't strike Talan as the greedy type. There would have to be an investigation once the war had been settled.

Aelian looked about ready to blow the man's head off, and the latter knew it, wincing at the thought. Talan stayed the arbitrator's hand.

"What is your name?" he asked at last.

"Veran Stylop," said the adept, relaxing slightly as he realised he might be spared.

"Congratulations, you are remanded in custody until such a time as an investigation can be launched," said Talan.

"Oh, thank you, thank you," said Adept Stylop.

Talan knelt beside Stylop and flashed his Inquisitorial electoo. The adept's eyes almost popped out of their sockets in surprise and terror.

"You are now my spy," said Talan quietly.


End file.
